Preview — How Baking Works
by Paula I. Figoni

How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science

An up-to-date, comprehensive guide to understanding and applying food science to the bakeshop.

The essence of baking is chemistry, and anyone who wants to be a master pastry chef must understand the principles and science that make baking work. This book explains the whys and hows of every chemical reaction, essential ingredient, and technique, revealing the complex mysterAn up-to-date, comprehensive guide to understanding and applying food science to the bakeshop.

The essence of baking is chemistry, and anyone who wants to be a master pastry chef must understand the principles and science that make baking work. This book explains the whys and hows of every chemical reaction, essential ingredient, and technique, revealing the complex mysteries of bread loaves, pastries, and everything in between. Among other additions, How Baking Works, Third Edition includes an all-new chapter on baking for health and wellness, with detailed information on using whole grains, allergy-free baking, and reducing salt, sugar, and fat in a variety of baked goods. This detailed and informative guide features:

An introduction to the major ingredient groups, including sweeteners, fats, milk, and leavening agents, and how each affects finished baked goods Practical exercises and experiments that vividly illustrate how different ingredients function Photographs and illustrations that show the science of baking at work End-of-chapter discussion and review questions that reinforce key concepts and test learning For both practicing and future bakers and pastry chefs, How Baking Works, Third Edition offers an unrivaled hands-on learning experience....more

Community Reviews

Were you to situate a university school of baking, it would make perfect sense to locate it in between the School of Fine Arts and the Chemistry Building. Baking is a tasty collision of art and science; neglect of either spoils the dough. Master bakers and master pastry chefs have a thorough understanding of the chemicals in ingredients and of the chemical reactions involved in baking. Paula Figoni is a food scientist who teaches in the International Baking and Pastry Institute in the College ofWere you to situate a university school of baking, it would make perfect sense to locate it in between the School of Fine Arts and the Chemistry Building. Baking is a tasty collision of art and science; neglect of either spoils the dough. Master bakers and master pastry chefs have a thorough understanding of the chemicals in ingredients and of the chemical reactions involved in baking. Paula Figoni is a food scientist who teaches in the International Baking and Pastry Institute in the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. In addition to her teaching experience, she has worked in product development for Pillsbury and Ocean Spray. "How Baking Works" (now in a third edition; this review treats the second) is a textbook written for the culinary student in general and the baking-pastry student in particular. It is intended to be used in conjunction with classes in which experiments may be conducted and review questions discussed with classmates and an instructor. The home cook who seeks to do more than follow recipes will nonetheless be richly rewarded by slowly, carefully and even meditatively reading this book. There is an industrial bias which must be filtered by the home baker. Fortunately, this is not difficult to overcome.

while I don't recommend trying to read this from start to finish in a few days, it is remarkably clear for a textbook on baking. The information was divided into chapters that (not being a culinary student) I thought made a lot of sense, and there was a lot of review material at the end of each chapter. I found there were a lot of hints and tips for the home baker that I will carry forward in my baking. It's an excellent resource for any serious baker's bookshelf.

When I bought this book, I knew it was a textbook, but I'd hoped for more information than what I found in this book. They do cover each factor/ingredient, but they give pretty little, considering this is supposed to be a textbook. It's a decent book for a hands-on/laboratory class, but I was hoping for more theory and a bit more expansion. Still keeping the book... I guess. (Haven't quite made up my mind.)

This book is specifically a clunkily written and gluten-biased quasi-textbook for would-be bakery professionals. Which makes me sound like some sort of gluten-hater. I'm not. I just like rice, and think it's worthy of a little baking talk, much the same with corn. Rice gets 3 lines in this book. This book sings the glory of chemical additives to ease the mass production of bread. I guess it was kind of interesting, from a sociological standpoint.

This book gets into some really nitty gritty on how baking works (per the title!). Sometimes it's a bit TOO granular, but helpful nonetheless. It would be better if you could actually get the answers to the study questions (the teacher's guide is outrageously expensive) and many of the tests require batches of batter that aren't practical for a home person. Still, I think this book would be invaluable to anyone who hasn't been to pastry school and wants to understand the process.

Very technical but fascinating at the same time. Explained a lot of problems that I have when I bake (inconsistent oven temperature, too warm hands when trying to roll out pie crust) so I was glad I read it.Not for the "average foodie" ... for a fan of trivia and "oh that's why that happens/happened" kind of reader.

This book has some great information but it's basically a textbook, with review questions and topics at the end of each chapter, I returned it and got another title that is more in line with what I am looking to learn about, hope to finish and review that soon.

The subject matter of this book is one of which I enjoy reading. I have tried to read this one repeatedly but it makes me feel like taking a nap every time! I do not require a book to be very entertaining but this one is boring!